Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: wolf paul Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Crank Calls (Why There are Fewer in Europe) Message-ID: <11021@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 17 Aug 90 07:28:05 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: wolf paul Organization: IIASA, Laxenburg/Vienna, Austria, Europe Lines: 62 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 579, Message 8 of 9 In article <10918@accuvax.nwu.edu> Henry Troup writes: >I wonder if Sedat's blissful crank call-less world is due to the fact >that most of Europe -- and I therefore presume Austria -- charges for >local calls, making crank calling a much less attractive 'hobby' of >the eight-to-ten year olds and drunks that I seem to get? Yes, Austria does charge for local calls. As far as I know, on subscriber lines, local charges start the moment you go off-hook and continue till you hang up again; on older-style payphones you provide your own answer supervision by pushing a button when the called party answers; newer payphones also seem to charge for the entire time you're off-hook. This does seem to be one of the reasons crank calls are less frequent; it does not eliminate them altogether, though. However, I also think that a low occurrence of crank calls is related to the overall social climate; Vienna also has a relatively low crime rate. I am sure that if you find a city with a higher crime rate, say London, Paris, Frankfurt or Hamburg, you will also find a higher incidence of crank calls, despite the fact that in all these cities, local calls are charged. >Anyone have any facts or opinions on the relative rates of crank >calls. See above. I don't have any facts, just guesses. >On another track, when I lived in the U.K. we were taught to answer >the phone with the number. I presume this dates from a time when the >switching system was even less reliable than it is today. But in North >America one thing you never do is tell a caller what number s/he has >reached. How does the rest of the world answer the phone? Actually, I think the British custom of answering the phone with the number stems from privacy concerns: presumably the caller KNOWS what number s/he has called; but if s/he has dialled a random number, why tell him/her whom s/he has reached? In Austria, and I believe in the rest of German-speaking Europe, residential phones are usually answered with the subscriber's last name; if a visitor answeres the phone, he may just answer with the subscriber's name, or else would say, for example, "bei Meier", "at the Meier's". Since not only are local calls charged for, but until recently, none of the fancy gadgets like auto-diallers were available here or licensed for connection to the phone system, phone solicitation is virtually unknown here, and most people here in Austria are not terribly concerned with privacy as it relates to telephones. This may change once Austria joins the EEC (5-6 years from now at the most) and the entire telecom area will be largely deregulated. Wolf N. Paul, Int. Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) Schloss Laxenburg, Schlossplatz 1, A - 2361 Laxenburg, Austria, Europe PHONE: +43-2236-71521-465 FAX: +43-2236-71313 UUCP: uunet!iiasa.at!wnp INTERNET: wnp%iiasa.at@uunet.uu.net BITNET: tuvie!iiasa!wnp@awiuni01.BITNET